Diagnosing the dangers of drowsiness

Thursday, August 03, 2017 by James Gorry

Companies working in 24-hour industries face a number of challenges related to the health and welfare of their staff. The risk of a fatigue-related incident is most commonly attributed to a driver’s levels of drowsiness, but there are other factors, too.

Shift workers particularly are prone to sleep disorders and other lifestyle and medical challenges that may harm their ability to always perform at their peak. The most common question we hear from industry is “how do we know if we have a problem and how large that problem may be?”

Determining the dangers

Optalert’seagle DIAGNOSTIC product can now effectively help 24-hour operations and at-risk industries to determine the locations, tasks, and environments that are most likely to lead to underperformance even a drowsiness-related accident.

Through a 10-week analysis, we will evaluate your work environment and employees to help diagnose the following:

Drivers and operators who may be at risk

Locations where your operators are at risk

Times of the day and days of the week where operators are most at risk

Is your industry at risk of drowsiness?

Optalert has determined the following industries as the most at-risk industries impacted by the effects of drowsiness:

Oil and gas

Health and emergency workers

Security teams

Trucking

Road transport

Aviation

Passenger transport – rail, road and air

Rail freight

Mining

Do your employees travel to and work in remote locations?

The eagle DIAGNOSTIC has GPS capabilities that can track the location of your staff at throughout their shift as well as en route to and from their shift.

Continuous monitoring helps us map out locations (and times of day) where the risk of drowsiness is higher.

Do you have shift workers?

Through decades of research and our scientifically proven drowsiness detection system, we are able to determine the most at-risk times of the day and days of the week where drivers or operators are likely to be involved in a fatigue-related accident.

The risk of fatigue is heightened through shift work, where the body is fighting its natural circadian rhythm in order to safely and competently complete a shift.

Shift work is dangerous not only because the body is fighting against its natural circadian rhythm, but also because there is no guarantee that a worker has received adequate rest leading up to a shift.

Further, the commute home that follows a shift is one of the most dangerous periods when it comes to reaction time and concentration.

eagle DIAGNOSTIC, when used in conjunction with either eagle PORTABLE or eagle INDUSTRIAL can help employers develop optimum shift rosters to reduce the risk of an on- or off-site fatigue-related incident.

Do your employees perform monotonous tasks?

Repetitive tasks can quickly becoming monotonous, presenting the opportunity for an operator’s concentration to drop. Consider the following scenarios:

A truck driver driving along a long stretch of desolate highway

A nurse driving along her familiar route home after night shift

A bus driver working on the same route every day

Mental fatigue can build when we are doing repetitive or predictable tasks. We may even find ourselves slipping into a micro sleep, even if just for a few seconds.

Are employees subject to unpredictable environments?

Do your employees have to make decisions which could impact the life of others? Medical teams and emergency workers often work long hours and at times when their bodies want to sleep, but they have to make critical decisions under pressure with serious consequences. If they are not alert at this time, it could be disastrous.

Studies show medical residents who slept less than five hours a night were much more likely to make medical errors and report serious accidents and for a workplace with the primary purpose of taking care of people, this goes against everything they are trying to achieve.

Book an eagle DIAGNOSTIC evaluation now

If you believe your workplace or employees may be at risk, book an evaluation now to find out how the eagle DIAGNOSTIC can help determine a fatigue risk score - where and when your employees are most at risk. Contact our sales team by email or telephone today.